Homestate Hotel Glory

Texas hotels crowned best (sorta) new places to stay in the South

In its March 2014 issue, Southern Living magazine has produced a list of the best new hotels in the South, including some recently renovated properties worth a revisit. Three Texas hotels — one each in Austin, Houston and Dallas — caught the editors' eyes.

Hotel Ella in Austin gets props for being "prim and proper with a touch of rogue masculinity." Although the property is under new ownership, it had been operating as a hotel, the Mansion at Judge's Hill, before its reincarnation as Ella last year.

Originally built in 1898 as a wedding gift from one of UT's founders, Thomas Wooten, to his son and young bride, the mansion retains its historic charm with features like a wraparound porch. But the cabana-lined pool, for example, is totally of-the-moment — especially for enjoying a well-shaken cocktail.

However, Southern Living failed to mention Hotel Ella's greatest asset: those sumptuous beds you may never want to leave. Depending on your agenda, you may never have to.

Listed among the noteworthy renovations is Hotel Derek in Houston. The property had a recent facelift courtesy of Flick-Mars, who made "brazen design choices" such as snakeskin-patterned bathroom walls, bold colors and zebra-print chairs that are "meant to echo the fashion of Houston's Galleria."

In Dallas, the Southern Living staff noticed the recently renovated Joule — although "renovation" hardly seems sufficient to describe the downtown hotel's swanky transformation. "A big-budget expansion sleeked out this 1920s landmark with multilevel penthouse suites; a bird's-eye rooftop terrace; and CBD Provisions, a modern brasserie serving proud Texas fare," the magazine notes.

Sure, but what about the new spa, fitness center, LA retail imports Traffic and TenOverSix, and Weekend coffee shop?

Sadly absent from the reno list is W Dallas Victory hotel, whose redo has likely been overshadowed by its sparkling downtown neighbor. Houston-based design firm MaRS executed the cowboy cool update to all 252 guest rooms, including 26 suites.

Hotel Ella in Austin is one of the best new hotels in the South, according to Southern Living.

Photo courtesy of Hotel Ella

Hotel Ella in Austin is one of the best new hotels in the South, according to Southern Living.

unspecified

Holiday Travel News

American Airlines briefly halts flights nationwide for technical issue

Photo courtesy of American Airlines

undefined

American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday due to a technical issue just as the Christmas travel season kicks into high gear.

American flights were cleared to fly by federal regulators about one hour after a national ground stop order was issued by federal regulators.

Just before 8 am Dallas time, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all American Airlines flights grounded in the U.S. at the airline’s request. American had reported a technical issue affecting its entire system with millions traveling for the holiday.
The ground stop, according to the time stamps on the FAA's orders, lasted exactly one hour.

American has not expanded on what technical issue grounded the flights and the airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The groundings couldn't come at a worse time for the millions of travelers expected to fly over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays and through January 2.

Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up.

In December 2022, Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Southwest was ordered to pay a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement to resolve a federal investigation into the Christmas debacle of 2022.

Excluding the settlement, the nation’s fourth-biggest airline by revenue said the meltdown cost it more than $1.1 billion in refunds and reimbursements, extra costs and lost ticket sales over several months.

holidays